First impression on day of receipt:

Drill comes packed in a very good cardboard box. When I opened the box the instructions are right on top. Great! No components were damaged or missing.

I unpackaged everything and took inventory before assembly and then had it assembled all by myself in about 20 minutes including lifting the drill press head, and taking my time to remove all oil from the chuck and arbor. If I can lift and install the drill press head by myself, you can too! It was very straightforward and hardly required instructions so don't let the need to assemble it intimidate you. I do question the lack of washers on the column-to-base mount.

Runout: when I first installed the chuck there was noticeable runout so I removed the chuck and reinstalled it. Now runout is minimal. Since I do not have a runout gauge I shot a 240fps video of it running at slow speed with a drill bit installed and watched for wobble on replay. While the chuck collar has obvious visible wobble the drill bits do not. Don't let wobble in the chuck collar worry you; there is necessarily some play in that part. If you do get wobble in your drill bit or sander drum, remove the chuck using the provided tool and reinstall it before exchanging the drill.

Then I drilled a couple of test holes; very clean and easy. The guide laser was accurate out of the box but with larger bits and hole saws it isnt of much use so this feature is of limited value for most. I will find it useful for electronics components where i use small bits, but not much else. Machinists might find it more useful. The supplied LED worklight lamp is weak, and needs to be upgraded; other reviewers are absolutely right about that. I'll upgrade it when I start putting the press to use.

There were no "bad" noises of bad bearings or overtightened components or any misalignments; the drill press is actually quite quiet.

Other reviewers here and elsewhere claimed there is no stop to limit the drill's quill return height (upward movement). This is obviously untrue; look at the bottom of the depth scale and you will see the collar. Also look at the "TO ADJUST THE QUILL (RETURN) HEIGHT" section of the manual. ;) There is no facility for locking the quill at any arbitrary height; you will need to use the depth scale stop collars for this. An unfortunate missing feature perhaps, but at this price level either quality or features had to go, so I can live with that limitation and use the depth gauge stops for sanding and milling. Annoying yes, but after comparing this to many other drills at $350 or less, I am happy with the feature set and build quality of this unit. I'd have happily paid more; this unit isless expensive than even HF's comparably-sized units but the build quality is orders of magnitude better. I did have to resort to using pliers to loosen the return height stop; it came overtightened out of the box. Be sure to loosen ONLY one upper lower depth scale collar because the bottommost one holds the scale in place!

The sprung chuck key /is/ very annoying but thank lawyers for that; it is now required by the feds because of people who left keys in chucks and turned the drills on, and presumably sued drill manufacturers for their own dang negligence. I can't blame WEN for that annoyance.

Speed adjustment: somewhat slow to adjust and settle down at the desired speed, but it beats constantly changing belts and is not unexpected.

Drawbacks:
Digital speed readout: this does remain activated when the drill is turned off, so I will unfortunately have to unplug the unit when it is not in use. A minor annoyance but this should be addressed. Shame on you, WEN for not cutting power to the digital speed readout when unit is off. This wouldn't be much of an issue if you had used LCD but this is the sort of LED module which tends to not last if powered 24/7.
I also do not like the table wobble while raising or lowering it but that annoyance seems to be the case across all modern smaller drill presses.
I'd also like to see a metal (even cheap pot metal) crank handle rather than plastic.
As mentioned no arbitrary quill height lock, but the depth scale lock collars can be used as a workaround.

I did not have to adjust spindle play nor the return spring. I will be picking up a runout gauge to measure and if necessary fine-tune runout later on.

Unfortunately it will be a few weeks before I am actually able to use it for serious jobs. I will provide an update once I run it through its paces. Once our workbench is completed and the press mounted I will upload photos and a video.

Planned uses:
- custom electronics assemblies (incl. milling parts for high-lumen flashlights)
- woodworking
- mixing largish batches of epoxy resin
- as a stand mixer for soapmaking

Bonus: I really like that they included a /full/ exploded diagram and parts list for the drill press, which should allow for easy long-term maintenance (providing parts are available).

What a GREAT addition to my room full of junk and power tools... This drill press is a BEAST... It's twice the size of my little old SKIL, which you can see in the pictures... The SKIL did a good job for me, but I outgrew it... Once I found out that drill presses with variable speed existed, IT WAS ON!!! I had to have one... No more messing with loosening the motor and sticking my fingers into the belt & pulleys... That had gotten old a long time ago...

I've only had it for a few days now... I love it... It'll probably be the last drill press I'll ever need to buy...

ACCURACY: Seems to be accurate, as the tip of the drill bit hits right where the lasers cross... I don't have a dial indicator to check the runout, but I'm sure it will serve me just fine... I'm not running a machine shop, and I don't need accuracies down to the thousandths of an inch...

EASY TO ASSEMBLE: No, not entirely... But I was doing a couple other things during the process, like drinkin' beer, and helping my buddy with his trailer hitch... The column-to-base bolts call for a 16mm wrench... I bought a whole set of ratchet wrenches a couple years ago, but there was NO 16mm in there... I found a socket to fit, 5/8" I think... The hardest part of the assembly was lifting the head up onto the column... It's quite heavy and unbalanced... A second pair of hands would've been a plus... My trailer hitch buddy had already left...

VALUE FOR MONEY: I shopped around 4-5 online sites for 3 weeks, and I kinda felt like I was being "spyed upon"... It seemed to me that they were bidding amongst each other for my money... The prices quoted for this machine on different sites kept fluctuating every couple days... It was truly weird... I think I'm gonna buy a VPN next... But anyway, for all the features this machine has, I think it's worth every bit of what I paid for it... It TOWERS over my old drill press, so I don't have to squat down or sit to use it... It's REAL good looking, like the STAR of my workshop... The table with the extension that swivels and bevels adds ALOT to the package... The swivel feature is kinda messed up, as it relates to that rack gear on the side of the column... The rack gear ends just ride in the top (orange) and bottom collars, and can get bound up if not guided along during swivel... (??Did that come out right??) And, of course, like a kid in a toy store, I had to open the lid on top to watch how the variable speed worked... It's pretty neat...

But, the MOST BRILLIANT part of the entire design of the machine is... ...wait for it... ...you'll never believe it over everything else I mentioned... THE CHUCK KEY itself gets 6 out of 5 stars for it's design... Sticking out from the center of the key is a small pin with a spring behind it... It is IMPOSSIBLE to forget the chuck key and turn the power switch ON... That sprung pin pushes the key out of the chuck... I don't know if this design has been around for a while, as this is the 1st drill press I've bought in a LONG time... This chuck key design should've been implemented on ALL styles of chucks for the last 50 years... ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!!

YES to "would buy again"... And Again, And Again, if needed... Nice machine for an novice to half-pro environment... It might last in a PRO environment (machine shop) if taken care of... It's really quite the nice machine... Thanx WEN, and Thanx Amazon... GOOD DAY...

I am writing this review after only a few days of owning the drill press, but running it extensively. So understand, this is not a review on the machine's durability or longevity. Down the road, should something change, I will come back and update this review, as is my habit.

Also understand, I purchased this with the full expectation of later modifying and upgrading anything I was unhappy with. For $225 and free shipping, I had very moderate expectations for out of the box performance, fit and finish.

Packaging: This unit was well packaged in close fitting foam, and despite broken foam and a box that looks the part of the global journey it has been on, the machine arrived with no damage and nothing missing.

Assembly: If you are mechanically minded, you do not need instructions. The machine has been partially assembled in a very clever manner, and there is very little to do to complete the full assembly. It took me longer to modify a stand I had sitting around to mount the machine on than it did to assemble this. From unboxing to plugged in and running was less than 45 minutes. Everything assembled flawlessly.

Performance: I had read several reports of the machine being underpowered. It is probably only underpowered based on perception of the motor size vs manufacturer claims (it's probably not as powerful as the manufacturer claims) (then again, Ridgid claims my wet/dry vac is 6.0 horsepower, so ...). Or, underpowered based on wildly unrealistic expectations for a 12 inch benchtop drill press.

To test, I chucked up a 1/2" drill (drill was new) and without a pilot hole, quickly drilled through a piece of 1/4" steel angle and also through a scrap piece of 1/2" steel plate. There was no bogging or hesitation. I have since drilled dozens of holes in steel, cast iron and wood. I've used twist drills, countersinks, forstner and auger drills, paddle bits This machine is not underpowered at all and absolutely destroys the performance of any battery powered hand drill. It's obviously far easier to use for accurate drilling compared to a corded hand drill.

Features/Fit/Finish, in no particular order:
1) The laser is accurate, though to me, it's really only useful for quickly punching a hole in something where accuracy isn't important. Otherwise, it's a neat feature.
2) I like the work-lamp. It's bright enough to do a good job of lighting up the work area without causing unnecessary glare.
3) The slide out material support annoys me. The roller rattles like crazy, but soon enough I will weld up a permanent workstation for the drill press and will get rid of the slide out support.
4) The variable speed is really nice to have, though I think this is intended mostly as a woodworking drill press as the low rpm range is 550~ and I would prefer around 200. It takes effort to adjust speeds, but does adjust smoothly. The drive system is a bit noisy (most Reeves pulleys are) and there is some vibration, but honestly, the machine is surprisingly smooth running. I have only experienced truly vibration free performance on drill presses like the Powermatic PM2800. That machine is huge and is also $1500. So again, adjust your expectations.
5) The table rides up and down on the rack as well as machines many times this price. The table locks up square to the spindle (good thing, there is no front to back adjustment, so casting accuracy was good enough).
6) The chuck, arbor and spindle all seem reasonably concentric. I will not be setting up a test indicator, because I do not care. This is not a mill. I chucked a piece of drill rod and there is no perceptible runout by eye and that is more than good enough for any drill press. (go to youtube and watch Frank Hoose's video on 3 jaw chuck runout and you'll see how easy it is to spot runout by eye).
7) The switch sucks. It's the worst thing on the machine. It's cheap, it will probably be the first thing to break. I hope it breaks soon, so I can justify replacing it with a push/pull or some sort of magnetic switch.
8) I could not find any defects in any of the castings. The table did have some minor burrs from machining, but nothing 2 seconds with a file doesn't solve.
9) Table finish - People complain about the relatively rough milling of the table. Actually, I like it and it's smoother than it looks. Finely ground cast iron is slick (like on a nice table saw). The finish on this table makes clamping workpieces down easy and helps to keep them in place without having to go 800 pound gorilla on the clamp.
10) Paint - It's cheap, but isn't horrid. It's a match for the price of the machine. I like the color as orange is one of my favorites.
11) The chuck is nice and locks securely without a ton of effort. Though, a key-less chuck will replace this soon, because I don't want to keep track of the key. There is a nice key holder and it's easy to use.
12) Knurled thumbwheels instead of nuts on the depth stop is an awesome touch. Much better than the garbage depth stops you find on the Harbor Freight presses.
13) The quill operates smoothly, but the quill return spring is crunchy. I expect this will need replaced, if only because it's annoying me.

In conclusion, there is nothing amazing about this drill press. At the price of $225 though, it's an excellent buy. The JET branded machine is $400 and is not worth that asking price. And this is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the Harbor Freight offerings in terms of features and fit/finish.

As things break, I'll update this review, but unless something catastrophic happens, it's not changing from 5 stars. I purchased this with the full intent of modifying and upgrading everything possible and am extremely happy with my purchase.

I moved into a smaller home and had to sell most of my woodworking machines. The Wen 4214T drill press is a replacement for my 12 year old Jet JDP-15M. After reading numerous reviews, I did not have high expectations until I read a November 2022 review by Bob Vila. He rated the Wen 4214 as best overall. I have used the Wen a few times and not found any major flaws. The speed control is stiff and the mechanism to raise and lower the table jumps from one tooth to the next when lowering the table. Someone reported that their table interfered with the column and prevented rotation. This wasn't true of my machine. One reviewer claimed the drill had such low torque that the chuck could be stopped with a bare hand. I didn't try this but had no trouble boring a 1" hole in a poplar board with a Forstner bit. I made some measurements with a dial indicator and a Veritas straight edge (flat to 0.0015" over its 24" length). The spindle runout was 0.001". Chuck runout was 0.003" measured ¼ " below the chuck. This is more than adequate for woodworking. The manual gives a chuck capacity of 1/8 to 5/8 inches, but no metric conversion and does not agree with the capacities marked on the chuck (0.8 "“ 16mm) which translates to 1/32 to 5/8. The chuck was able to hold a #70 bit (0.0285") and drill an accurate hole at 3000 RPM. The table tilt front to back which is not adjustable was about 0.002". The table was ground flat to better than 0.006". The laser alignment system has no adjustment for vertical movement so it must be realigned if you move the workpiece relative to the head. I drilled a 1/16" hole at the laser alignment point and then raised the workpiece 1 ½ ". The alignment point shifted about 1/32nd of an inch. I originally mounted the drill on a tool stand rated at 500 lbs. It has a ¾ " MDF top split down the middle to allow the top to be expanded. The drill weighs only 85 lbs , but is much too heavy for the table. I ended up mounting it to a heavy workbench. Overall, I am very satisfied with this machine and highly recommend it.